Distro News

Best

Best Linux 2000 R2-Moscow is a
Russian-language version of the Best Linux distribution, which is also
available in English, Swedish and Finnish.

Bluetooth

Las Vegas, NV May 9, 2000 Today at Networld+Interop (N+I), Axis
Communications is demonstrating a new wireless solution that provides
broadband access to the Internet and LANs for a wide range of emerging
wireless devices. General availability is
expected in the fourth quarter.
The Bluetooth Access Point will be used to create local "hot spots," areas
where instant wireless broadband access to the Internet or a network is
available to Bluetooth enabled devices, such as cell phones, PDAs, laptops
and emerging Webpads. These hot spots will enable new and innovative
services for a variety of user environments, in the office, home, hotels,
retail establishments and other public places such as the airport.

In the hotel of the future, while you check into your room, your laptop
checks into the office - retrieves e-mail, voicemail and accesses corporate
Intranet services - all with broadband speed. Phone calls will be routed
automatically via telephony services to your personal mobile phone,
providing one number simplicity and lower-cost phone bills. The hotel will
offer new conveniences: such as easy wireless faxing and printing from
anywhere in the hotel to the business center, poolside food service
ordering and streamlined checkout payment all from your PDA.

The Bluetooth Access Point from Axis is the first to support both data and
voice services. The product platform is based on Axis' integrated
system-on-a-chip technology and embedded Linux, which includes a Bluetooth
stack for Linux developed by Axis and recently released under GNU General
Public License (GPL) to the open source community.

Newlix is focusing on building an outstanding array of
'set-and-forget' performance features into a reliable, cost-effective
network operating system, which runs on standard Intel-based
hardware. The company's flagship product, Newlix OfficeServer, is a
robust network operating system which features plug-and-play software
installation coupled with easy-to-use, web-based configuration tools.

3D Microcomputers is the largest Canadian-owned manufacturer of
computer systems. The company provides products and services to 6,000
computer resellers across Canada.

Ottawa, ON - May 3, 2000 - Newlix Corporation and Look Communications
Inc. today announced a marketing partnership to promote the use of
Newlix OfficeServer, a turnkey Linux-based network operating system
for small and mid-sized businesses looking for secure, company-wide
Internet access.

Look Communications is a leading wireless broadband carrier and one
of the largest Internet Service Providers in Canada. The Newlix
OfficeServer will be included in a host of Web-based applications
Look offers to support business Internet requirements.

Newlix Corporation (www.newlix.com) is
a privately funded company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario and founded in
1999. Corel Corporation (Nasdaq: CORL; TSE: COR) is an investor in the company.
Newlix develops software for an easy-to-use Linux-based network operating
system that meets the networking and internetworking needs of small to
medium-sized businesses and provides OEMs, VARs and other partners with the
essential building blocks to custom tailor networking solutions. The company's
flagship product, Newlix OfficeServer, provides a robust, worry-free,
'set-and-forget' communications and networking platform, designed to be
delivered in partnership with hardware vendors, connectivity providers and
application service providers.

Red Hat

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--April 25, 2000--Red Hat, Inc.,
announced today that it is now taking orders for
developer tools and services for the embedded Linux market.
The Red Hat Embedded DevKit (EDK) begins shipping immediately and answers
the demand for open source software and tools in the growing
embedded space, which includes Internet appliances and handhelds.

The Red Hat EDK provides an integrated development environment (IDE) to
deliver software developers everything needed to quickly and easily create
embedded Linux applications on a wide spectrum of pervasive computing
platforms. The targeted markets include manufacturers who are building
Internet infrastructure appliances and consumer Internet appliances,
as well as the traditional telecom, datacom, industrial and embedded
enterprise markets.

The Red Hat Embedded DevKit is a completely open source software package
and is sold via redhat.com with varying levels of services starting
at $199.95.

A key advantage to the Red Hat Embedded DevKit is access to the premium
support services that Red Hat has pioneered in the open source space. Red Hat
Support customers receive assistance on the usage of the Embedded DevKit and
response to questions about embedded Linux. In addition, customers are entitled
to priority response on corrections to any EDK or kernel problems they submit.
This ensures that customer projects stay on schedule.

For EDK, Red Hat offers two types of premium support:

Incident support for small workgroups, and Platinum Support for larger
development teams. Incident packages provide the customer with priority
response on a fixed number of requests. Platinum packages provide priority
response on an unlimited number of requests, but are based on the number
of software developers using the EDK.

LuteLinux

News in General

Filesystem Hierarchy Standard 2.1

FHS 2.1 is done!

I'm pleased to announce the release of FHS 2.1, a updated version of the
Filesystem Hierarchy Standard for Linux and other Unix-like operating
systems. FHS is part of the draft Linux Standard Base specification,
which will soon be updated to reflect FHS 2.1.

FHS 2.1 supersedes both FSSTND 1.2 and FHS 2.0. There have been some
significant improvements and bug fixes since FHS 2.0. Please see the
FHS web site for details. (It has been a few years since the last
official release, so check it out if you're using a previous version
of FHS or FSSTND.)

What is FHS?

FHS defines a common arrangement of the many files and directories in
Unix-like systems (the filesystem hierarchy) that many different
developers and groups have agreed to use. See below for details on
retrieving the standard.

The FHS specification is used by the implementors of Linux distributions
and other Unix-like operating systems, application developers, and
open-source writers. In addition, many system administrators and users
have found it to be a useful resource.

FHS or its predecessor, FSSTND, is currently implemented by most
major Linux distributions, including Debian, Red Hat, Caldera, SuSE,
and more.

RAID solutions for Linux

The advantages of our products are that we sell systems utilizing either
SCSI or IDE hard drives.
Also, our RAIDs are O/S independent--useful if your readers are utilizing
multiple-boot or different operating systems.

NetMax products

Ann Arbor, Michigan, May 8, 2000 -
Cybernet Systems Corporation today
announced two new product releases with enhanced features for its popular
Linux-based NetMAX Internet appliance software line, providing consumers
with more capabilities and flexibility at the same low cost and in the
same easy, 15-minute installation format. The NetMAX Internet Server
Suite now includes the ability to host multiple domains on a single IP
address, and improvements to the NetMAX FireWall Suite include a proxy
server with 100 MB of cached storage to speed network performance.

LinuxMall and EBIZ (TheLinuxStore) to merge

DENVER-- LinuxMall.com Inc. and EBIZ Enterprises Inc.,
announced today both parties have executed a letter of intent (LOI) to merge.
The merger of LinuxMall.com
and TheLinuxStore.com, a division of
EBIZ Enterprises, will position the combined entity as the largest
vendor-neutral Linux shopping mall and destination on the Internet. The
resulting company will offer the most comprehensive selection of Linux products
and solutions, information and services. The companies' combined prior fiscal
year revenues were more than $25 million.

Under terms of the agreement, the new corporation will be known as
LinuxMall.com. Today, LinuxMall.com is the No. 1 e-commerce site for the Linux
community and was recently listed the No. 1 shopping destination in Linux
Magazine's "Top One Hundred Linux Sites." The rise of the Linux operating
system has been one of the top technology stories of the year as companies are
adopting this system within their enterprises. TheLinuxStore.com Web site will
become a store within the LinuxMall.com collection of online stores.

The new Company intends to apply for NASDAQ listing after successful
completion of the proposed merger.

Software Carpentry Design Competition Finalists

The Software Carpentry Project is pleased to announce the selection of
finalists in its first Open Source Design Competition. There were
many strong entries, and we would like to thank everyone who took the
time to participate.

We would also like to invite everyone who has been involved to contact
the teams listed below, and see if there is any way to collaborate in
the second round. Many of you had excellent ideas that deserve to be
in the final tools, and the more involved you are in discussions over
the next two months, the easier it will be for you to take part in the
ensuing implementation effort.

The 12 entries that are going forward in the "Configuration", "Build",
and "Track" categories are listed at the URL below. The
four prize-winning entries in the "Test" category are also listed, we are
putting this section of the competition on hold for a couple of months while we
try to refine the requirements.
You can inspect these entries on-line at
http://www.software-carpentry.com/first-round-results.html

Stalker: StrongARM version of CommuniGate Pro

From the Big Iron down to a Pocket Server.
Stalker Announces a Linux StrongARM version of the CommuniGate Pro Mail Server

MILL VALLEY, CA - May 15, 2000 - Just two weeks after the successful release
of the AS/400 version of CommuniGate Pro, Stalker Software, Inc. today
announced the Linux StrongARM version of their highly scalable, carrier-grade
messaging server.

CommuniGate Pro was initially designed to be a highly portable messaging
system that can effectively use the resources of any operating system on any
hardware platform. Current installations include small to mid-size ISPs on up
to the extra large ISPs and Fortune 500 companies.

With this release, Stalker expands the number of supported Linux
architectures: besides the "regular" Intel-based systems, CommuniGate Pro can
be deployed on PowerPC, MIPS, Alpha, Sparc, and now StrongARM processors
running the Linux(r) operating system.

The highly scalable messaging platform can support 100,000 accounts with an
average ISP-type load on a single server, and the CommuniGate Pro unique
clustering mechanisms allow it to support a virtually unlimited number of
accounts.

First UK Linux Conference Set to Challenge IT in Business

First UK Linux Conference Set To Challenge IT In Business
SuSE Linux Ltd, Europe's leading Linux distributor, will be hosting the first UK Linux Conference on 1st June at the Olympia
Conference Centre in London. The Conference, in association with IBM, is set to position Linux as a viable option for the
corporate desktop, whilst preserving its traditional role of powering many corporate servers. Leading industry figures,
including Larry Augustin of VA Linux, Alan Cox of Red Hat, Dirk Hohndel of SuSE Linux and Vice President of the Xfree86 Project,
and John Hall from Linux International, will discuss issues ranging from the origins and direction of Linux, to the increasing
relevance it has in the business environment today.

Magic Software news

IRVINE, CA (May 17, 2000) - Magic Software Enterprises announced completion
of two key acquisitions. Magic purchased a majority interest in Sintec Call
Centers Ltd. (Sintec), a Magic Solutions Partner that is the developer of the
leading call center management software in Israel. Magic plans to market and
sell the Magic-based solution -- which already has been implemented extensively
in Israel -- worldwide under the brandname, "Magic eContacit" Magic also has
acquired ITM, another Magic Solutions Partner with expertise in the development
and implementation of e-commerce projects.

IRVINE, CA (May 22, 2000) - Magic Software Enterprises (Nasdaq: MGIC), a
leading provider of state-of-the-art application development technology and
business solutions, announced today that it has signed a deal with Compass
Group PLC, a major worldwide foodservice organization, to deliver an
e-procurement solution. The e-procurement solution, which is being developed
and implemented by Magic's French subsidiary at Compass Group France, will be
built using Magic's award-winning business-to-business e-commerce solution,
Magic eMerchant. The new application is expected to become operational in
June 2000.

"We chose Magic over Oracle and IBM because they were able to provide us a
competitive, fixed-price solution that could be implemented much more quickly
and efficiently than the other two, and would adhere exactly to our specific
data model," said Ludovic Penin, Compass Group's IS director in France.

Solemates chooses Lutris Technologies

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - May 22, 2000 - Lutris Technologies, Inc., an Open
Source enterprise software and services company, today announced that its
Professional Services group was chosen to deliver the interactive customatix
(www.customatix.com) Web site for
Solemates. Customatix.com is an interactive E-commerce site that enables
customers to design and build their own shoes click-by-click from the sole up.

Solemates, the company behind customatix.com, relied on Lutris Technologies'
Professional Services group to develop a site capable of delivering the
three billion trillion combinations of custom shoe designs that only a
Web-based business could offer customers. Visitors to customatix.com can
select from a vast assortment of shoe design elements, including sole
heights, materials, colors, laces, and other options to build a uniquely
individual pair of shoes.

Lutris made customatix.com come to life quickly. Using Enhydra
(www.enhydra.org), a leading
Open Source Java(tm)/XML application server, the Professional Services group
built a complex, multi-faceted application, architecting a solution that
integrates seamlessly with Solemates' partners, including UPS, Cybersource,
and FaceTime. The Enhydra Open Source application server decreased
Solemates' time-to-market to a fraction of what it could have been using
closed source, proprietary software.

Using Enhydra XMLC, Lutris was able to deploy Solemates' business in five
months-roughly half the time it would have taken without this innovation,
and at a cost of approximately one-third of what a pioneering site typically
costs, according to recent GartnerGroup survey data. Enhydra XMLC separates
HTML design and coding from business logic, allowing interface designers and
Java programmers to work simultaneously yet independently. Since a core
benefit of customatix.com's vision lay in allowing customers to view their
creations in real-time, Enhydra XMLC provided the precise technology to
support such an inventive business strategy.

Linux Links

Proton Media specializes in
creating multimedia web presentations using Flash 4.0. The same presentation
may be used as a trade-show kiosk and also given away as a "CD-ROM business
card". (This URL requires Macromedia's Shockwave Flash plug-in. A link to the
Linux version is available at the site.)

ZDNetUK article: "Linux took another major stride towards corporate
acceptance last week, with IBM's announcement that IBM Global Services would
support S/390 versions of Linux from SuSE and TurboLinux."

UK adds voice to Napster Linux row (ZDNetUK article)
"Napster could be used to distribute open source software,
says British Linux kernel programmer Alan Cox, adding his voice
to the current dispute over the technology."

Software Announcements

new release of BORG

We would like to announce that the next version (v0.2.20) of BORG (BMRT
Ordinary Rendering GUI) is now available for download at
www.project-borg.org.
BORG is now running on most of the BMRT supported platforms including
LINUX, WinNT, SOLARIS. (Requires Java 1.1.7 or higher.)

Linux Accounting

I would like to announce the availability of AccountiX for LINUX. this is
a full featured, modular accounting package. The source code is available in
order to provide customization to fit an end-users needs. Information on the
package is located at
www.accountixinc.com.

Frank Quirk, President
AccountiX, Inc.

Loki: Heavy Gear II

With "Heavy Gear II" Loki Entertainment Software is
opening the door to new dimensions in the Linux world: with 3D audio effects
and joystick support, a further step has been taken towards the acceptance of
Linux by the home user.

With the release of the first "big" Linux game, "Civilization: Call To
Power" (awarded the "Best End User Product of 1999" by Linux Journal),
Loki Entertainment has already made a name for itself. Just like its
successors, "Heavy Gear II" makes optimal use of the qualities of Linux
in the network, whereby multi-player games based on rounds, or real-time,
are possible. Due to its success, it is no surprise that around a dozen
more titles are planned on being ported to Linux for the year 2000.

Loki is currently placing its main emphasis on 3D sound support by means
of OpenAL. "OpenAL represents a milestone for Linux," realizes Scott
Draeker, president of Loki Entertainment Software. "Until now, 3D audio
features in games were reserved for users of other platforms. This has
all changed now."

OpenAL, entirely in the tradition of the Open Source community, is issued
under the LPGL license (GNU Library Public License).

Loki released 7 front-line Linux game titles in 1999, and
plans 16 titles for 2000. For more information, visit
www.lokigames.com.

Loki: Quake III Arena Editor

We proudly announce the beta release of Linux SDK for use with Quake III
Arena.

The full version of Linux SDK will benefit Linux enthusiasts and aspiring
game developers alike by allowing them to create maps and game code
modifications under Linux. Windows users have had this capability since
the release of the original Quake game.

Linux SDK offers Linux users a toolchain for content creation. It
combines software for image processing, conversion and editing with a
fully-featured map editor compatible with the Quake III engine. The
features include custom texturing, lighting, patches, shaders, entities
and more. It is based in part on the QERadiant code from id Software, Inc.

EiconCard Connections for Linux, when
combined with an EiconCard network interface card, provides the wide area
communications needs for an easy-to-use, low-cost, and easy-to-manage
communications server. The flexibility of the EiconCard, when combined with
this software, provides powerful IP Routing over various WAN protocols, making
it ideal for applications such as Web Servers or Thin Server Appliances. In
addition, many Linux-based embedded systems, such as point-of-sales, can use
the X.25 connectivity built into the software. It will be available in June.

Opera has signed a deal with RSA to use
RASFE Crypto-Ci 1.0 encryption software in its Opera web browser.